


the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb

by inmylife



Series: 30 ways to hold [7]
Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), Produce 101 (TV), 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Banter, M/M, huang minghao | justin is bad at feelings, idol producer era, late night teen angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 20:05:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15469002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmylife/pseuds/inmylife
Summary: justin/chengcheng + first time cuddling





	the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb

**Author's Note:**

> 30 ways to hold: 30 short fics based on tumblr user tiptoe39's list of prompts having to do with cuddling!

Justin wakes up at four AM and there's someone crying in the dorm. 

 

Now, for Justin, this is nothing unusual. Zhengting is an easy crier and Wenjun has this annoying tendency to watch sad dramas on his phone when he really should be sleeping. Produce 101, as well, gave Justin a harsh introduction to just how stressful idol life could be. 

 

Course, back in the Paju dorms, Zhengting was in the room to deal with the crisis. 

 

Well, fuck. 

 

Whoever it is is still crying, quiet sobs like he's trying to hide. Justin sighs heavily and gets out of bed. 

 

It's from the bed above him. It's Chengcheng. Dammit. 

 

If it were someone from Yuehua, Justin would know how to deal with it. But Chengcheng isn't in Yuehua so Justin has no idea how to handle this. It's just that the sobs have already stopped, raw breathing taking their place, so Justin knows Chengcheng's noticed him which means there's no going back now. 

 

"Cheng ge," he breathes, not quite whispering because there's tone and sound to his voice but not quite speaking either because if he wakes up Zeren there'll be hell to pay. "Can I come up?" 

 

"Y-yeah," responds Chengcheng. Justin climbs the ladder carefully, quietly, trying his hardest not to be his usual, loud self. It's not that they need all the sleep they can get right now - even though they always do - as this week is a free week between the first evaluations and the first eliminations and so there isn't much early in the day or late at night, it's just that Justin's geges are a pain in the ass when their sleep is interrupted for something as stupid as Justin falling on the floor. Justin knows from experience.

 

Chengcheng is lying sideways on his bed, squished up against the wall, with teartracks shining in the light coming through the windows from the streetlights of Langfeng. He looks despondent, in a way, a way that reminds Justin a little of Seunghyuk and a little of Dongho and Jonghyun when they got into Wanna One and left Minki and Minhyun behind. And, if he's being honest, a little of himself. 

 

"Ge?" 

 

"Stin," Chengcheng whispers. 

 

Not knowing what else to say - really, Justin's bad at this, this kind of thing really is Zhengting's job - Justin lifts up the covers and lies down in the bed next to Chengcheng. He shifts, and so does Chengcheng, and then they're lying against each other, almost. 

 

"Ge," Justin breathes. "What's wrong?"  

 

"Do you ever feel like-" Chengcheng's hesitant. If Justin were Zhengting, he'd take Chengcheng's hand, maybe. Tell him to take his time. Psychoanalyze him or something. Justin just nods. And maybe scoots a little closer so that they're touching just a bit more, but nobody needs to know what. 

 

He takes a deep breath. Whatever's eating Chengcheng, it's been eating at him for a long time, and he might not have ever said this out loud before. 

 

God, Justin is turning into his brother. 

 

"Like when people look at you, they don't really see… you?" 

 

And oh, Justin gets it. He leans his head back a little from the shock of it because he knew, on some level, how similar he and Chengcheng were, how much they had in common, but something in him hadn't quite clicked before just how much they really shared. How much they understand each other on a visceral level. 

 

Justin has to take some time to recover from that. 

 

"Yeah, ge. I do." 

 

"She's my sister and I love her but I'm just - just so sick of  _ belonging _ to her!" Chengcheng cries. "She's one of the highest-paid women in all of China and even in the world and I don't feel like I'll ever be just Fan Chengcheng instead of Bingbing jiejie's little brother."

 

"Zheng ge got really popular after the fifth episode aired," Justin says, instead of properly responding, because Justin is bad at feelings. "And then all the drama with Woodam hyung and the Pop team. His rank went up twenty places in a week. I… I stayed where I was and all of a sudden I was less Justin than I was the lesser sibling." 

 

"I don't remember a time before jiejie was famous," Chengcheng says. "Must be nice." 

 

"At least you're used to it," Justin laughs cynically. "At the end of the show we had to film videos from the families. I'd gone back home, see. And it felt so - so -" Justin shook his head. "It felt like we didn't live in the same world anymore." 

 

"Sometimes I wonder if I even want to," mutters the older boy. 

 

"Well, we're here," says Justin, "so clearly we both do."

 

"Yours is in Korea, though," Chengcheng says. "At least you can escape him."

 

Justin struggles not to burst out into incredulous laughter. "Chengcheng ge, you have no idea how popular they are over here, do you… they have two Chinese members, and besides anyone that's huge in Korea is like automatic royalty here anyway." 

 

"Guess that's true." Chengcheng nods. "The worst thing is that jiejie's so  _ nice _ about it. She's just so… nice. I thought celebrities were supposed to be bitchy." 

 

"Get off your ass, ge, you probably grew up with your sister bringing home famous men left and right. You know what celebrities are like. But yeah!" Justin segues, body a little more alive and less asleep than before. "The last time they were in China Zheng ge got me backstage. He flew me in for their reality show, for God's sakes." 

 

Chengcheng starts giggling. "Zhengting what?" 

 

"God, it was like - they had this, like, fake dorm with stuff they liked in it - like Sungwoon hyung had a room full of mirrors and shit, it was insane - and that fucking sap said he  _ missed me,  _ what the fuck? I hung around with Guanlin ge and Kenta hyung's cats the entire time. And ate Hyunbin hyung's food, which was pretty nice."

 

"Did your brother just ignore you or something?" 

 

"No, I mean we shared a room," Justin answers. Chengcheng's dried his eyes. "It's just he always wanted to do boyfriend stuff with his boyfriend." Justin smirks. "But I made plenty sure to make fun of him for it. While the cameras were off, of course." 

 

They both laugh. 

 

"Hey, Stin?" 

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Thanks. And… I hope you debut on this show." 

 

"Yeah, ge. You too."

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> yes, the implication here is that justin was on wanna one go: zero base. 
> 
> this prompt was originally for triple h but i was sooo stuck writing it, then i was going through my stats and saw how many people wanted of don't mind the noise verse, so here we are. 
> 
> tumblr is zhengkis and twitter is missyehana


End file.
